The present invention relates to mobile devices, and more particularly to mobile phones.
Mobile phones have become ubiquitous communication devices, but they often employ naive alerting policies that can transform them into nuisances. In particular, mobile phones are typically unaware of how they are being used. Thus, they may act in a way that is disruptive of others, and/or embarrassing to the user. While many mobile phones do support profiles that allow the user to manually set an appropriate response for different contexts, the user must still remember to switch to the correct profile when an old profile is no longer relevant, or even appropriate for future contexts. For example, a mobile device user attending a function in a quiet auditorium might forget to select the “silent/meeting” mode on the device, only to be reminded of this fact when the device receives an incoming call and announces itself to the entire auditorium. Conversely, a mobile device erroneously left in a “meeting” profile may lead to missed calls in a subsequent noisy outdoor context.
In addition to the current need to ameliorate the “nuisance” of mobile phones, there is an additional need to allow such devices to interact with users in a more intuitive fashion. This allows users to take advantage of more-sophisticated device functions with relative ease. Mobile phones that can recognize, and appropriately respond to the intuitive actions that users customarily provide would simplify operation and facilitate user acceptance.